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Winner Winner, Chicken Dinner(s)

We know we’ve been a bit behind on the posts lately, blame it on the chaos around Christmas and the regular ebb and flow of life. But I haven’t forgotten you, I’ve been snapping pictures and logging them for just this moment when I could get back, so stay tuned for some frequent posts my friends!

This one is fresh though, just finished the final recipe yesterday and I must say I’m proud! I thought ‘What if I blogged two recipes around the evolution of one whole chicken?’ Now stay with me here… what I mean is, I bought a whole chicken, made a dinner with it, and from the remains, made another different dinner. Not revolutionary, I know, but quite fun.

One $9 whole chicken = more than 7 meals!

This plan would be perfect for a Sunday or Monday start, with the second meal (which requires a little less forethought) happening midweek. Here’s your grocery list for both meals, should you choose to accept this challenge winning plan:

Dinner #1: Crock Pot Roast Chicken

If you can start this the night before I highly recommend it as it lets the chicken soak in the spices and marinate! It only takes 2 minutes so it’s well worth it.

First combine spices in a large freezer bag, shake around until mixed, and then place the whole chicken in the bag and seal with air (so the spices can move), hand to your boyfriend/partner/child to shake around like a maniac until the chicken is covered, release the air like a vacuum seal, and place in fridge overnight.

2 tsp salt

2 tsp paprika

1 tsp cayenne pepper

1 tsp mustard powder

1 tsp thyme

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp black pepper

The next morning, chop a whole onion roughly and place in the bottom of your crock pot (you could even do this the night before as well). Set it to ‘Low’, put the chicken on top of the onions (head down), place the lid on and go about your day, leaving it for 8-10 hrs depending on how ‘fall apart-y’ you like your chicken. Ta Da!!

That’s it, seriously. It’s moist, it’s tender, it’s flavourful, and I promise the minimal effort is way worth the result, and better than a roast chicken you bought at the store! Throw a salad together when you get home and you’ve got a meal. Just be careful pulling it out of the crockpot, as mine fell apart (not pretty, but still delish!) and make sure you save the gravy and onions!!

If your chicken survives dinner #1 (I had to pull the plate away from my boyfriend), move on to Dinner #2! Unless you have a large family, this should be no problem, it’s amazing what you can get from these things, I even had a chicken wrap for lunch in between these dinners. Just place the remaining chicken in a dish with all the gravy, seal and put in the fridge for a day or two until you’re ready for the next meal.

Dinner #2: Tuscan Chicken Stew

Remaining Chicken, gravy and onions

1 cup water

1 Tetrapack of Chicken Stock (approx 4 cups)

2 Stalks Celery roughly chopped

2 Turnips roughly chopped

4 Carrots roughly chopped

1lb of Baby Red Potatoes chopped in half

2 Cloves Garlic roughly diced

1/2 Tsp each of paprika, fine herbs, fresh ground pepper and red pepper flakes (skip the flakes if you don’t like heat)

Note: There is no salt added to this recipe, between the stock and the previous chicken gravy you should have enough flavour without

Firstly, while still cold, scoop most of the congealed fat from the top of the chicken/gravy container that you pulled from the fridge.

In a large soup pot, warm up the Chicken remains and gravy until they’re just warm enough to touch. Remove from stove, wash your hands and prepare to get a little messy. Use a spaghetti scooper to fish through and remove all bones and skin, and then scoop out the chicken from the gravy and set to one side.

Bring gravy to a boil with the chicken stock and water and add the carrots, celery, potatoes and garlic and remaining spices. Leave to boil with the lid off for about 20 minutes or until veggies are soft – leaving the lid off will reduce the liquid nicely. Add the chicken that was patiently waiting, stir and remove from heat. Let stand for a while, or in my case, while you quickly make some corn bread.

Enjoy!

Recipe Cred: both of these delicious meals were based off of original recipes by South Your Mouth and Sloppy Joes but of course I never follow recipes exactly, so the above is my rendition